What voice does the photographic image lend to the printed word? What is the relationship between imagery and text? From the stark commentary of photojournalism to unforgettable portraits of leaders and the lavish fantasy worlds created through fashion spreads, representatives from some of China’s strongest publications joins The New Yorker’s former visuals director Elisabeth Biondi to focus on the role of magazines as platforms for photographic work, whether to augment the reader’s experience or present pictorial statements compelling in their own right.

This program is in conjunction with Beyond Words: Photography in The New Yorker, on exhibition in UCCA’s central gallery 15 April – 10 June and is part of the 2012 Caochangdi Photospring Festival program.

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Guests: Elisabeth Biondi (co-curator, Beyond Words: Photography in The New Yorker, The New Yorker visuals editor, 1996-2011), Rocky Liang (creative director, LIFE magazine), H.S. Liu (independent photographer and photojournalist, Pulitzer Prize winner, 1992), Na Risong (editor-in-chief, Xiang Su magazine)

Elisabeth Biondi was Visuals Editor at The New Yorker where she has helped to shape the magazine’s acclaimed reputation for photography. Formerly Head of Photography at Stern, she has worked with photographers from around the world and numerous other publications, including Vanity Fair. In 2004 she served as Chair of the Judges of the World Press Photo Awards.
Rocky Liang is creative director at LIFE magazine, published by Modern Media. He is recognised as a leading figure within China’s publications industry and has appeared on numerous discussion panels for his ability to challenge the status quo. He is based in Shanghai.

H.S. Liu is a former foreign correspondent and photojournalist whose postings took him from Beijing to Los Angeles, New Delhi to Seoul, and to Moscow for the Associated Press. During that time he photographed major world events from the Soviet military occupation of Afghanistan to the civil war in Sri Lanka and China’s burgeoning economic reforms. He was also on hand to capture the fall of the USSR: in 1992, Liu shared a Pulitzer Prize for Spot News and an Overseas Press Club Award for his coverage of the Soviet Union’s collapse. In 1989, Liu was named Best Photographer by the Associated Press Managing Editors. Liu is the author of the widely acclaimed photographic documentation China After Mao and Soviet Union: Collapse of an Empire. He is the editor of China, Portrait of a Country, which has been published in six languages. In 2010, Liu co-authored with Karen Smith Shanghai, A History in Photographs 1842 to Today. In 2004, Paris Photo named Liu as one of the hundred most influential people in contemporary photography. Liu graduated from Hunter College. City University of New York in 1975. He lives and works in Beijing.

Na Risong is artistic director at the Inter Gallery/ Beijing 798 Art Center and editor-in-chief of PIXEL. He has acted as curator for photography festivals both domestically and abroad on numerous occasions. In addition to these projects and other large-scale photographic exhibitions, he has also edited a number of important books and catalogues on photography.

Moderator: Philip Tinari (UCCA director)